swimming to improve my health.
b) the time taken to swim
a set distance.
Secondly, it was my son who
inspired me to start swimming.
One day I was giving him a hug
and he said ... “Wow! You have
a shoulder girdle at last”. When I
looked in the mirror later, I noticed I
was starting to develop that highly
prized and over rated “manly chest”.
Like all the other swimmers in the
pool, I enjoy breathing, and want to
see the end of the pool so I don’t
bump my head. By the same token,
I don’t enjoy choking on breathed in
water, so the issue to be resolved was
“mouth open” or “mouth closed”.
Next came what I call the “Picasso
influence”. I decided that I didn’t really
need the entire face. Abstraction
and the Cubists brought to the fore,
the idea that we don’t have to paint
what an artist friend of mine calls
“pretty pictures”. They stressed
that we should concentrate on
essential elements of what we want
to depict, and the relationship of the
parts is subordinate to that idea.
So, all I really needed was an
eye, which I decided to symbolize
(much like Picasso), and a mouth.
Breathing is more important
than seeing, so I could enlarge the
mouth and subordinate the eye, or
have one eye and several mouths
depicting stages of the breathing
process whilst swimming.
Next, the arms and the legs needed
thinking about. As far as swimming is
concerned, the leg is merely a system
of levers, and the muscles provide
the necessary force to move the
foot giving propulsion and bubbles
(which relate back to breathing).
Decision: subordinate the leg,
enlarge the foot, show some bubbles.
It is very hard to draw the back
of your foot when your head is
in it’s normal position, so I sat
in front of a mirror and sketched
a foreshortened foot and leg, in
different positions. I also pulled
lots of funny faces and sketched
my mouth in different shapes.
I was now able to do more
thumbnails and come up with a
final concept. Remember, nothing in
art is fixed until you decide you’ve
finished. I recall reading once that
Tom Roberts bought back one of
his paintings, so he could relocate
a tree he wasn’t happy with.
So, when I say “final”, I mean
that I have reached a point I am
satisfied with, at that point in time.
Compositionally, I wanted the
eye to be led into the picture by
the lighter coloured bubbles, follow
the leg up to the flags, then run
along the line of the flags till it hit
the “odd one out”. It would then be
directed along the imaginary line of
the flag, down to the light coloured
clock, pick up the swimmer and go
around the centre of the painting.
Because the clock is so
important, as mentioned previously,
it should be one of the lightest
areas, painted against a darker
background, and positioned on
or near the junction of thirds.
The next stage was to think about
colours. I had decided on a portrait
format, based on my thumbnails, so
I thought I could emulate Egyptian
art, children’s art and Oriental art in
that I would use the top of the canvas
to represent the distant end of the
pool. I therefore decided on a cool
Prussian Blue for the top, grading
down to a warm Ultramarine at the
base of the canvas. I didn’t want
the colours to be fully saturated, so
I would have to add a little of their
complementary colour. To create the
effect of aerial perspective, I would
also need to add a little white to the
mix. Finally, to represent the lane
floats, lines, and reflections on the
bottom of the pool, I will vertically
streak the same three colours.
In part two, I will discuss the
painting process I followed; problems
that arose, and how I resolved them;
and how the painting itself dictated
modifications to my initial planning.Until next time, happy painting.
PhilfrFOR YOUR INFFOR YOUR INFOO
About the Author
Having finished my working
career and now being
retired, I started to paint
seriously, and liked it.
I always thought I could paint,
despite criticism of my early
attempts whilst working, raising
a family, etc. This year I decided
to immerse myself; to make
myself as good an artist as I can
be, by enrolling in a Bachelor
of Arts (Fine Art and Visual
Culture) at Curtin University.“I had decided on
a portrait format,
based on my
thumbnails, so I
thought I could
emulate Egyptian
art, children’s art
and Oriental art in
that I would use the
top of the canvas to
represent the distant
end of the pool.”